The RFTA references a post on the Microsoft IE blog that says IE7 is coming 'real soon now' and that it "will be delivered to customers via Automatic Updates a few weeks after it's available for download". How the submitter took that to mean it's going to be automatically for everyone from tomorrow is a mystery.
If it sells poorly, it will serve as "proof" that DRM is needed.
One comment on the Yahoo blog page says:
I tried to purchase this song (to support non drm'd music on your recommendation) and it brought me to a URL which didn't actually do anything when I clicked "download". Customer support appears to be non existant. I am really annoyed, because there doesn't appear to be any way for me to get the song I paid for.
...which seems as a good a way as any for them to ensure it won't sell well!
Indeed, that was my first thought too. If you read his reviews of some of the Vista builds, it's pretty clear he's not shy to criticse Microsoft products when he thinks they deserve it. E.g.
Where Vista Fails
I'll leave a fuller examination of Vista's broken promises for a later date. For now, let's look at the most current builds we do have--build 5308 and 5342--and see where Vista just completely blows it. As with the broken promises, Vista's failures are legion, but I'll just focus on a few examples here and leave the full list for a later time.
I'm in Thailand too, and agree the subtitles are next-to-useless. It's not just the English subtitles either, the Thai subtitles are just as bad. They seem to have been run through an automatic translator and left at that. E.g. a guy who's been shot shouts out "I'm not going to make it!", which is translated as "I probably will not continue doing it!" . Mind you, I guess you can't really expect perfect translation for 100B a disk.
OK. Your DNS servers do not announce that they are open DNS servers. Although there is a slight chance that they really are open DNS servers, this is very unlikely. Open DNS servers increase the chances that of cache poisoning, can degrade performance of your DNS, and can cause your DNS servers to be used in an attack (so it is good that your DNS servers do not appear to be open DNS servers).
I guess that shows the slashdot editors actually do read their site sometimes after all!
I live in Thailand, and it's easier to get pirated software than the real thing here. Loads and loads of markets, street stalls or computer centers sell CD's full of pirated software for about $4 a time. There's pretty much everything available - Adobe/Macromedia, Oracle, Microsoft, high-end video and audio programs etc.. even 'pirated' Linux distros! It's all the latest versions too, for instance there was copies of the Longhorn beta builds available ages ago. By contrast, real versions of software are either unavailable, slow to arrive and/or expensive (usually quite a bit more than the US price). So believe me that you don't necessarily need a country with a high internet penetration to have a lot of pirated software!
I think MS could easily do this themselves if they wanted to, without the need for a third party. If they made a similar system and auto-updated everyone's version of IE to be compatabile with it, they'd have 70%-80% of web users able to use their system and so quite a strong selling point for potential customers. Alternative browser makers would then probably be forced to follow (or risk their users being unable to access a substantial number of sites), reinforcing MS's position further.
Compare that to the service of the company in TFA - from the UnifiedRoot.com website, it seems like in order to use their services your ISP needs to have configured UnifiedRoot TLDs or each individual user needs to change their DNS settings. I don't know how many percent of web users those conditions cover, but it's gotta be pretty tiny in comparision to what MS could do.
Of course, if MS did do it they could be accused of abusing their monoply (kinda similar to the Verisign Sitefinder thing a while back), but then that hasn't stopped them before...
The pop-ups designed to look exactly like Windows options or dialog boxes ("Warning! Your computer may be broadcasting an IP address!!") always got a high clickthrough rate from novice users too. Shame they were always pay-per-impression not pay-per-click though. These spyware advertisers knew how to work the system that's for sure.
Interestingly, if you're an Adsense publisher nowadays there's a lot more options for banners and graphical ads for what used to be a text only scheme. The banners seem to get a reasonable CTR too.
I think what killed the old style banner ad was not so much text ads, but the fact that the Google text ads were well targeted compared to the moronic "hit the monkey!!" banner ads. I know many ad publishers also became annoyed at the banner ads which seem specifically designed to get a low click-through rate, thereby getting maximum branding exposure for the advertiser at minimum cost. I reckon any ad publisher is forever grateful to Google for revolutionising this system.
I don't really buy this intentional low supply conspiracy theory. Aren't they just staggering the release to avoid the problems the PS2 had with a lot of units selling out fast straightaway and then stores not having any in for ages and frustrating customers? In MS's mind it's better to have at least a constant supply going to the stores, even if that means less stock initally. And who knows, Sony might well adopt a similar strategy for the PS3 too when it's released.
Spare a thought for us in parts of the world too - god knows when we'll get either of them over here in Thailand!
Zealotry perhaps, but if it was Microsoft giving away XP you just know all the comments here would be about how it's only a trick to lock-in new users to Microsoft software. Isn't that argument equally valid (or invalid, depeding on your pov) for Apple too ?
I'm not sure there's any definitive proof yet, but there's certainly some evidence that way. This BBC article talks about the data showing HIV getting weaker over the last 20 years http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4290300.stm
Researcher Dr Eric Arts said: "This was a very preliminary study, but we did find a pretty striking observation in that the viruses from the 2000s are much weaker than the viruses from the eighties.
"Obviously this virus is still causing death, although it may be causing death at a slower rate of progression now. Maybe in another 50 to 60 years we might see this virus not causing death."
In progress:
Add FULLTEXT indexes on InnoDB tables. A sponsor for this project has been found, and a developer has been hired. Appears probably in 2006.
Maybe that's referring to IE's infamous index.dat files which can't be deleted (at least not while the windows shell is running). Really throughly cleaning out the history in IE seems quite a challenge - all the more reason to use Firefox and/or Opera I guess!
It seems to me that the primary problem with the music industry is the history of price fixing.
That, and the trend for albums to contain 2-3 good songs (at most) and a load of filler crap. Why would anyone want to buy an album like that?
I heard an interview with Jay Kay of Jamiroquai talking about the way the trend towards downloading means fans are buying individual tracks at a time rather than whole albums, which is forcing them and other artists to spend more time on the "other" tracks on their albums to make sure they're up to scratch. If this is the case (more people downloading = higher quality music), then great! And if we can get it for less than $0.99 even better!
Windows Vista box sticker - "Fully DRM compatible!"
To an average non-technical user who just wants their music and video files to play, isn't this going to make the DRM look like an additional feature that Windows has and Linux lacks? Sadly lacking DRM might end up turning people away from Linux rather than towards it:(
MEASLES BELIEVED TO BE FIRST VIRUS UNABLE TO SPREAD THROUGH MICROSOFT OUTLOOK
Researchers Shocked to Finally Find Virus That Email App Doesn't Like
Atlanta, Ga. - Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Symantec's AntiVirus Research Center today confirmed that Measles cannot be spread by Microsoft's Outlook email application, believed to be the first time the program has ever failed to propagate a major virus.
"Frankly, we've never heard of a virus that couldn't spread through Microsoft Outlook, so our findings were, to say the least, unexpected," said Clive Sarnow, director of the CDC's infectious disease unit.
The study was immediately hailed by US officials, who said it will save millions of dollars and thousands of man hours. "Up until now we have, quite naturally, assumed that measles, like every other virus, was spread by Microsoft Outlook," said Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns. "By eliminating it, we can focus our resources elsewhere."
However, researchers in the Hong Kong said they are not yet prepared to disqualify Outlook, which has been the progenitor of viruses such as "I Love You," "Bubbleboy," "Anna Kournikova," and "Naked Wife," to name but a few.
Said Xi Ti Choo, director of the Molecular Virology Lab at Hong Kong University: "It's not that we don't trust the research, it's just that as scientists, we are trained to be skeptical of any finding that flies in the face of established truth. And this one flies in the face like a blind drunk sparrow."
Executives at Microsoft, meanwhile, were equally skeptical, insisting that Outlook's patented Virus Transfer Protocol (VTP) has proven virtually pervious to any virus. The company, however, will issue a free VTP patch if it turns out the application is not vulnerable to measles.
Such an admission would be embarrassing for the software giant, but Symantec virologist Ariel Kologne insisted that no one is more humiliated by the study than she is. "Only last week, I had a reporter ask if the measles virus spreads through Microsoft Outlook, and I told him, 'Doesn't everything?'" she recalled. "Who would've thought?"
Slashdot Mirror
The RFTA references a post on the Microsoft IE blog that says IE7 is coming 'real soon now' and that it "will be delivered to customers via Automatic Updates a few weeks after it's available for download". How the submitter took that to mean it's going to be automatically for everyone from tomorrow is a mystery.
One comment on the Yahoo blog page says:
I tried to purchase this song (to support non drm'd music on your recommendation) and it brought me to a URL which didn't actually do anything when I clicked "download". Customer support appears to be non existant. I am really annoyed, because there doesn't appear to be any way for me to get the song I paid for.
Perhaps Google should consider removing all ebay auctions from their search results?
Given the kind of ebay ads you (used to?) get on Google, maybe that'd be a good thing.
Not exactly the words of a Microsoft sycophant!
I'm in Thailand too, and agree the subtitles are next-to-useless. It's not just the English subtitles either, the Thai subtitles are just as bad. They seem to have been run through an automatic translator and left at that. E.g. a guy who's been shot shouts out "I'm not going to make it!", which is translated as "I probably will not continue doing it!" . Mind you, I guess you can't really expect perfect translation for 100B a disk.
3 /closer-subtitle-surrealism
Have a look at this blog entry I came across too about the situation in China, funny stuff - http://www.sinosplice.com/life/archives/2005/03/2
They don't seem to be anymore. http://www.dnsreport.com/tools/dnsreport.ch?domain =slashdot.org is now showing...
OK. Your DNS servers do not announce that they are open DNS servers. Although there is a slight chance that they really are open DNS servers, this is very unlikely. Open DNS servers increase the chances that of cache poisoning, can degrade performance of your DNS, and can cause your DNS servers to be used in an attack (so it is good that your DNS servers do not appear to be open DNS servers).
I guess that shows the slashdot editors actually do read their site sometimes after all!
The price of Apple hardware, the security of Windows, the user-friendliness of Linux all on one machine - what's not to like ?
They use this one - http://goog-ajaxslt.sourceforge.net/
I live in Thailand, and it's easier to get pirated software than the real thing here. Loads and loads of markets, street stalls or computer centers sell CD's full of pirated software for about $4 a time. There's pretty much everything available - Adobe/Macromedia, Oracle, Microsoft, high-end video and audio programs etc.. even 'pirated' Linux distros! It's all the latest versions too, for instance there was copies of the Longhorn beta builds available ages ago. By contrast, real versions of software are either unavailable, slow to arrive and/or expensive (usually quite a bit more than the US price). So believe me that you don't necessarily need a country with a high internet penetration to have a lot of pirated software!
Still, congratulations to Firefox though, especially as it seems this is the second time they've won this award this year...
I think MS could easily do this themselves if they wanted to, without the need for a third party. If they made a similar system and auto-updated everyone's version of IE to be compatabile with it, they'd have 70%-80% of web users able to use their system and so quite a strong selling point for potential customers. Alternative browser makers would then probably be forced to follow (or risk their users being unable to access a substantial number of sites), reinforcing MS's position further.
Compare that to the service of the company in TFA - from the UnifiedRoot.com website, it seems like in order to use their services your ISP needs to have configured UnifiedRoot TLDs or each individual user needs to change their DNS settings. I don't know how many percent of web users those conditions cover, but it's gotta be pretty tiny in comparision to what MS could do.
Of course, if MS did do it they could be accused of abusing their monoply (kinda similar to the Verisign Sitefinder thing a while back), but then that hasn't stopped them before...
genius!
The pop-ups designed to look exactly like Windows options or dialog boxes ("Warning! Your computer may be broadcasting an IP address!!") always got a high clickthrough rate from novice users too. Shame they were always pay-per-impression not pay-per-click though. These spyware advertisers knew how to work the system that's for sure.
Interestingly, if you're an Adsense publisher nowadays there's a lot more options for banners and graphical ads for what used to be a text only scheme. The banners seem to get a reasonable CTR too.
I think what killed the old style banner ad was not so much text ads, but the fact that the Google text ads were well targeted compared to the moronic "hit the monkey!!" banner ads. I know many ad publishers also became annoyed at the banner ads which seem specifically designed to get a low click-through rate, thereby getting maximum branding exposure for the advertiser at minimum cost. I reckon any ad publisher is forever grateful to Google for revolutionising this system.
I don't really buy this intentional low supply conspiracy theory. Aren't they just staggering the release to avoid the problems the PS2 had with a lot of units selling out fast straightaway and then stores not having any in for ages and frustrating customers? In MS's mind it's better to have at least a constant supply going to the stores, even if that means less stock initally. And who knows, Sony might well adopt a similar strategy for the PS3 too when it's released.
Spare a thought for us in parts of the world too - god knows when we'll get either of them over here in Thailand!
But as it is, their competitors (well, competitors in a sense) are going to remove the rootkit for us.
Zealotry perhaps, but if it was Microsoft giving away XP you just know all the comments here would be about how it's only a trick to lock-in new users to Microsoft software. Isn't that argument equally valid (or invalid, depeding on your pov) for Apple too ?
And you have proof of this?
I'm not sure there's any definitive proof yet, but there's certainly some evidence that way. This BBC article talks about the data showing HIV getting weaker over the last 20 years http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4290300.stm
Researcher Dr Eric Arts said: "This was a very preliminary study, but we did find a pretty striking observation in that the viruses from the 2000s are much weaker than the viruses from the eighties.
"Obviously this virus is still causing death, although it may be causing death at a slower rate of progression now. Maybe in another 50 to 60 years we might see this virus not causing death."
Not yet apparently, according to http://www.innodb.com/todo.php, but at least it looks like progress is being made.
In progress: Add FULLTEXT indexes on InnoDB tables. A sponsor for this project has been found, and a developer has been hired. Appears probably in 2006.
If she gets up and walks, I don't think you need a peer reviewed journal to prove that the therapy works!
There is a picture of her doing just that here (sorry it's 3MB PDF file, pic is on page 30).
But he bought it on ebay
Internet Explorer hides nothing from police
Maybe that's referring to IE's infamous index.dat files which can't be deleted (at least not while the windows shell is running). Really throughly cleaning out the history in IE seems quite a challenge - all the more reason to use Firefox and/or Opera I guess!
It seems to me that the primary problem with the music industry is the history of price fixing.
That, and the trend for albums to contain 2-3 good songs (at most) and a load of filler crap. Why would anyone want to buy an album like that?
I heard an interview with Jay Kay of Jamiroquai talking about the way the trend towards downloading means fans are buying individual tracks at a time rather than whole albums, which is forcing them and other artists to spend more time on the "other" tracks on their albums to make sure they're up to scratch. If this is the case (more people downloading = higher quality music), then great! And if we can get it for less than $0.99 even better!
Let's hope it's really true and not just words...
Linux advocates - "No DRM in Linux!"
:(
Legally downloaded audio/video file disclaimer - "Needs DRM compatible PC"
Windows Vista box sticker - "Fully DRM compatible!"
To an average non-technical user who just wants their music and video files to play, isn't this going to make the DRM look like an additional feature that Windows has and Linux lacks? Sadly lacking DRM might end up turning people away from Linux rather than towards it
MEASLES BELIEVED TO BE FIRST VIRUS UNABLE TO SPREAD THROUGH MICROSOFT OUTLOOK
Researchers Shocked to Finally Find Virus That Email App Doesn't Like
Atlanta, Ga. - Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Symantec's AntiVirus Research Center today confirmed that Measles cannot be spread by Microsoft's Outlook email application, believed to be the first time the program has ever failed to propagate a major virus.
"Frankly, we've never heard of a virus that couldn't spread through Microsoft Outlook, so our findings were, to say the least, unexpected," said Clive Sarnow, director of the CDC's infectious disease unit.
The study was immediately hailed by US officials, who said it will save millions of dollars and thousands of man hours. "Up until now we have, quite naturally, assumed that measles, like every other virus, was spread by Microsoft Outlook," said Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns. "By eliminating it, we can focus our resources elsewhere."
However, researchers in the Hong Kong said they are not yet prepared to disqualify Outlook, which has been the progenitor of viruses such as "I Love You," "Bubbleboy," "Anna Kournikova," and "Naked Wife," to name but a few.
Said Xi Ti Choo, director of the Molecular Virology Lab at Hong Kong University: "It's not that we don't trust the research, it's just that as scientists, we are trained to be skeptical of any finding that flies in the face of established truth. And this one flies in the face like a blind drunk sparrow."
Executives at Microsoft, meanwhile, were equally skeptical, insisting that Outlook's patented Virus Transfer Protocol (VTP) has proven virtually pervious to any virus. The company, however, will issue a free VTP patch if it turns out the application is not vulnerable to measles.
Such an admission would be embarrassing for the software giant, but Symantec virologist Ariel Kologne insisted that no one is more humiliated by the study than she is. "Only last week, I had a reporter ask if the measles virus spreads through Microsoft Outlook, and I told him, 'Doesn't everything?'" she recalled. "Who would've thought?"